Above is a photo of the basket as I last left it. I can see now that the diagonal band of bamboo strips on the left needs to be darker, as it’s further from the light. Also, I need to add some highlights to the band on the right, which is nearer the light. Below, I’ve made those changes. I also finished covering the underpainting on the bottom right side of the basket.
At my next session, seen below, I decided to further darken the left band of bamboo and also add some highlights to the individual strip’s edges. I made the highlighted area on the right band much brighter, obliterating some details. I also brightened many of the other strips that were catching the light and made their edges soft and hazy to mimic the look of bright light glowing and bouncing off of them. I noticed that many of the small shadow edges looked rather sharp and too dark. This often happens when I make a first stab at painting shadows near a bright light. At first, it seems as though the dark area is very dark, especially when closely compared to the adjacent light. However, if I step back and take in the whole set-up, I can see that the light from the bright area reflects into the dark shadowed area, casting a light glow onto it, effectively making the shadow appear much lighter than it first seemed. It always seems counter-intuitive to paint these shadows lighter, but observation always wins!
I spent a whole day making small adjustments to the many bamboo strips- too many to point out here! I think you can see though, that the end result is a more realistic, glowing result.
Linda Mann Artist 